Pierre Langlais

Pierre Langlais (2 December 1909-17 July 1986) was a French Army Brigadier-General during World War II, the First Indochina War, and the Algerian War.

Biography
Pierre Langlais was born in Pontivy, Brittany, France in 1909, and he graduated from the St. Cyr Military Academy in 1930 and served in the French Army in North Africa. He joined the Free French during the Italian campaign in 1943, Operation Dragoon in 1944, and the campaigns in Alsace and Germany from 1944 to 1945 during World War II, after which he was given command of a battalion and sent to French Indochina in October 1945. He commanded paratroop forces during the war against the Viet Minh insurgents, and he became the de facto commander of the French garrison in the midst of the Battle of Dien Bien Phu after Christian de Castries cowered in his bunker. He was held captive from the French surrender in May 1954 to the Geneva Conference of July 1954, after which he served in the Algerian War from 1955 to 1959. In 1966, he was promoted to Brigadier-General, and he retired that same year. In 1986, depressed due to his failing health, Langlais jumped to his death from an apartment window in Vannes.